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Published online 2 April 2008 | Nature 452, 508-509 (2008) | doi:10.1038/452508b
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Carbon-trading market has uncertain future
Clean development mechanism may be capped.
The budding carbon-offsets market could already be on its last legs, industry representatives say, if the latest European proposals are agreed. European negotiators went into a United Nations climate meeting in Bangkok this week warning developing countries that they need to step up to the challenge of climate change if they are to see additional money flowing into clean-development projects.
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This is clearly an interesting article and an important topic. Regions or countries like Europe and Japan do not have the geographical advantage of the size of say Russia. So they just don't have the forest capacity to offset their own CO2 production. Hence the CDMs and carbon trading, with countries that do have such capacity. The rider is that there have to be CDM projects in the countries that receive these funds. Its a way of paying for neighbourly assistance under certain conditions. Its not meant to solve the problem. In addition to this, and what may be more important, are revenue-neutral carbon taxes in each country, which are used to fund renewable energy systems in that very same country. This is the real driver for renewable energy and CDMs, and is one the real solutions to the problem.